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Romney Condemns Ad Proposal Using Reverend Wright

Mitt Romney on Thursday condemned plans by Republican strategists and a billionaire investor to run a $10-million advertising campaign linking President Obama to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, his incendiary former pastor.

“I repudiate that effort,” Mr. Romney told reporters at an impromptu news conference Thursday in Jacksonville, Fla. “I think it’s the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign.”

At the same time, Mr. Romney stood by remarks made in February on Sean Hannity’s radio show that Mr. Obama wanted to make America “a less Christian nation.”

“I’m not familiar, precisely, with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was,” Mr. Romney said.

A report Thursday in The New York Times about the Reverend Wright proposal put Mr. Romney on the defensive on a day his campaign had hoped to trumpet its fund-raising parity with Mr. Obama in April. Mr. Romney sought to turn the tables Thursday afternoon by accusing Mr. Obama of running a campaign based on personal attacks.

“I’ve been disappointed in the president’s campaign to date, which has been about character assassination,” Mr. Romney said, adding that an ad by the Obama campaign about his work at Bain Capital was meant to suggest that “I’m not a good person, or a good guy.”

He said the campaign should be “about the future.”

“It’s about jobs and kids,” Mr. Romney said.

The Times reported Thursday on a detailed plan to be financed by Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade and patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs, to use Mr. Wright’s “black liberation” rhetoric against the president, who attended Mr. Wright’s church for years. The plan was presented to the Ending Spending Action Fund, a ”super PAC” run by Mr. Ricketts.

Asked about the report in the morning, Mr. Romney declined to comment, saying he had not read the newspapers. Later, his campaign issued a statement repudiating the plan. Aides later scurried to provide Mr. Romney an opportunity on camera to distance himself from the plan.

By the afternoon, Mr. Ricketts had also formally rejected the idea. A spokesman said it had never been Mr. Ricketts’s idea in the first place, though documents obtained by the Times showed that Mr. Ricketts was more than a passing participant.

Authors of the 54-page proposal to Mr. Ricketts wrote that “with your preliminary approval at the New York meeting, we have discussed this plan in highly confidential terms with the following proposed team members.”

“All are ready to jump into action upon plan approval,” the proposal said.

(The list includes the radio host Larry Elder as a spokesman, the Republican media veteran Fred Davis, his deputy Brian Nick, the pollster Whit Ayres and several others.)

“Mr. Ricketts intends to work hard to help elect a president this fall who shares his commitment to economic responsibility, but his efforts are and will continue to be focused entirely on questions of fiscal policy, not attacks that seek to divide us socially or culturally,” Mr. Baker wrote.

The proposal to use Mr. Obama’s association with Mr. Wright quickly brought comparisons between Mr. Romney and Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.

Mr. McCain spoke forcefully during that campaign in defense of Mr. Obama, saying on Fox News that Mr. Wright’s rhetoric “are statements that none of us would associate ourselves with.”

“I don’t believe that Senator Obama would support any of those as well,” he said.

On Thursday, Mr. McCain indicated that he would again forbid advisers from using material about Mr. Wright.

“Senator McCain is very proud of the campaign he ran in 2008,” said Brian Rogers, Mr. McCain’s spokesman. “He stands by the decisions he made during that race and would make them again today.”

Democrats quickly seized on the report in the Times. Top aides to Mr. Obama suggested that Mr. Romney’s initial reluctance to comment did not compare favorably to Mr. McCain’s response four years ago.

“Once again, Governor Romney has fallen short of the standard that John McCain set, reacting tepidly in a moment that required moral leadership in standing up to the very extreme wing of his own party,” said Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina.

The revelations about the PAC’s plans emerged on the morning Mr. Romney’s campaign reported having raised $40.1 million in April after securing his party’s presidential nomination and joining forces with the Republican National Committee.

That figure put Mr. Romney nearly at parity with Mr. Obama during the month of April. In addition, the Romney campaign reported having $61.4 million in cash-on-hand in the bank, a sixfold increase over his total a month earlier.